This post was written by Sandy Llop, Fall 2024 Special Collections & University Archives Intern.
Over the course of this academic year’s fall semester, I had the opportunity to be an intern at the University of Mary Washington’s Special Collections and University Archives. In the four months I spent working there I was able to explore some of Simpson Library’s most interesting resources: the scrapbooks of Mary Washington alumni and student groups of years long past. With the earliest scrapbook dating back to the mid-1910s, this collection is a treasure trove of history and ephemera of their time periods. For my internship, I was tasked with digitizing some of these memory books so that they may be available online for Mary Washington students, researchers, and history buffs alike via the University’s Digital Collections.
Although every scrapbook in the collection is fascinating and important in its own way, only a few could be chosen for my particular project. After a few weeks of research, the final contenders for digitization were picked. The first was the scrapbook of alumna, Frances Edmonds Johnson, a student who attended UMW during the years 1928-1931. The second was the scrapbook of the MWC of UVA Defense Program, a program that was sponsored by the university’s Student Government Association during the Second World War that oversaw the buying and selling of war bonds on campus. The third was the scrapbook of the Cotillion Club, a social club which held formal dances for students from the years 1938-1948. The second of the three scrapbooks can be found in the Simpson Library Digital Collections under ‘Scrapbooks’.
While working with these memory books I not only learned about the ways in which they are preserved but also the kinds of tools and materials used in archival work. For example, the digitization process included steps such as scanning the scrapbooks at the Digital Archiving Lab at the Hurley Convergence Center, editing the scanned images in Adobe software like Photoshop, and creating alternative text that would be applied to the PDF file of the scrapbook for accessibility. In addition to this, I also learned about the other factors that come into play, like copyright and privacy laws, when making objects like these accessible to the public. I was even able to observe the acquisition of the newest addition to the collection, the scrapbook of alumna, Beverly Munn, a student who attended UMW during the years 1941-1944.
Overall, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. I learned so much during my internship at Mary Washington’s Special Collections and University Archives. I learned about the history of Mary Washington and its student life, about important events in local history such as the Fredericksburg Flood of 1942, and about the work of students raising money for the war effort. It is amazing the amount information that can be gleaned from a scrapbook. It is a glimpse into the past through the eyes of the person who created the memory book. I hope that the patrons of Mary Washington’s Simpson Library enjoy exploring this collection as much as I did and that the history of these scrapbooks can live on for many more years to come.
